I grew up in a great home. My mom and dad had been married fifteen years when I was born, and they would share fifty-six years together before Mom died. They loved each other, and they loved all four of us kids. I was raised in a very moral home. We were taught the dangers of alcohol, tobacco, lying, and stealing. If you did something wrong and then lied about it, the lie was considered worse than the original offense.

But while I grew up in a moral home, I did not grow up in a Christian home.

When I was twelve, my mom decided we needed to start going to church. It was there—in Sunday School, Youth Group, and during Sunday morning sermons—that I began to understand who God is. During a week of evangelistic meetings, I discovered that God loved me and that simply being moral was not what He was after. I would never be morally good enough to impress or even please God. Instead, God was pursuing a relationship with me. His invitation wasn’t about becoming good enough; it was an invitation to allow grace to transform me.

Grace isn’t looking for perfection—it transforms the imperfect.

That is my grace story.

Saul’s story in Acts 9 reminds us that grace reaches far beyond what we think is possible. Before he became the Apostle Paul, he was determined to destroy the church. He approved of Stephen’s execution, dragged Christians from their homes, and believed he was serving God by persecuting followers of Jesus.

Yet on the road to Damascus, Saul wasn’t searching for Jesus. Jesus was waiting for him. (Read that again!)

As a light from heaven surrounded him, Jesus asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Later Paul adds another phrase Jesus spoke: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” A goad was a pointed stick used to guide stubborn animals. The harder they kicked against it, the more pain they caused themselves.

Jesus was saying, “Saul, I’ve been pursuing you. Why are you still fighting Me?”

Those questions echo all the way back to the Garden of Eden: Where are you? and Why are you hiding? Every one of us must answer them. We all have a dark side—a root of sin that cannot be fixed by simply trying harder.

When we moved into our house, our flower beds were overrun with weeds. We spent countless hours pulling weeds, transplanting shrubs, and spreading mulch. Everything looked beautiful—for about a week. Then more thistles, clover, and even poison ivy appeared. We realized the problem wasn’t just what we could see. The roots were still there.

Sin works the same way. We can trim the surface, hide the weeds, and try to look good, but only God’s grace reaches the root.

When Saul encountered Jesus, he was convicted, forgiven, and transformed. Jesus didn’t come to destroy him; He came to redeem him and give him a new purpose.

The same grace is available to us today. God is still pursuing people. He is still writing grace stories—including yours.

Grace isn’t looking for perfection—it transforms the imperfect.